Fabrication-resolution enhancement method based on low-energy multiple exposures.

Laser direct writing (LDW) as a significant maskless lithography technique has been widely applied in scientific research and industrial manufacture. However, low fabrication resolution restricts its application in nanofabrication due to optical diffraction limit. This work presents a simple and novel way to improve the LDW fabrication resolution by multiple-exposure method with a low energy laser beam. Experiments indicate that the method could increase the fabrication resolution by 33.3% for the same exposure depth, and is close to simulation results. It should be pointed out that principle of the method is universal, and may be instructive to improve the fabrication resolution of other maskless energy beam lithography techniques such as EBL and FIB.